Combined horseshelter/ advertisement for Jens Braun

The truth is usually much more fun than whatever fantasies people make up about things. This case of the horseshelters above is no exception. Snopes dug into the claim that the building of the table and chairs were a reaction to the council refusing a farmer to build shelter for his horses. Snopes.com discovered that the huge table and chairs were an advertisement for their owner’s business along with being shelter for the horses.

This unusual shelter has been around at least since 2002. If you try to find anything on the net about Jens Braun, these stories pop up all over the place. 2002 is the earliest mention I find of this story. After that it pops up with and without the legend. One story even claims that Jens Braun of Döllstädt at Erfurt felt that his horses had the right to a table and some chairs, just like anyone else.

Time had the following caption:
Three horses try to hide from the rain under an oversized table and chair in a pasture near Doellstaedt, eastern Germany. The huge garden furniture was installed by a local wood merchant to promote his products. (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)

Associated Press has a set of pictures depicting the advertisement shelters. They tell us that wood dealer Jens Braun came up with this unusual idea of a combined shelter/advertisement for his business.

The horses seem to enjoy being able to hide beneath chairs and table. Very Gulliver.

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No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.